Hip-hop artist Ty Dolla $ign drops $500,000 on Tron Meme Coin Sundog

Grammy-nominated rapper Ty Dolla $ign marked his entry into the meme coin world by dropping 3.2 million TRX, approximately $502,000, into Sundog ($SUNDOG), a meme coin built on the TRON blockchain, on Monday.

The rapper’s move followed a series of tweets and light-hearted banter with American professional boxer and Sundog enthusiast Ryan Garcia, who encouraged him to ‘bet on Sundog’.

Ty Dolla $ign started showing interest on October 3, when the rapper tweeted, “What’s going on with all these memecoins? 👀 I hear about it everywhere. Is it all a hype or do people really make a living out of this?

The hip-hop mogul’s tweet sparked interest online and just two days later, on October 5, he mused, “What if I drop $500,000 on a memecoin?” Boxer Ryan Garcia quickly responded with: “Bet on Sundog. Some mafia cult meme lol.”

On October 8, Ty Dolla followed $ign through and tweeted: “I just dropped half a million. Send $SUNDOG now 🚀,” sharing a link to the TRON blockchain transaction that confirmed his purchase of Sundog for TRX 3.2 million.

But not every high-profile celebrity shares the same optimism about meme coins.

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, a known Dogecoin supporter, expressed his skepticism in a recent interview with Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio, the sister company of Decluttersaying, “Every meme coin is a tapestry in the making, but that’s also what makes them fun.”

Cuban, who views meme coins as speculative gambling, admitted to watching them for entertainment but cautioned against taking them too seriously.

The emerging Sundog memecoin was launched in August 2024 via the SunPump memecoin launchpad, TRON’s alternative to Solana’s Pump.Fun. At the time of writing, Sundog is trading at a price of $0.2484, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Since its debut, Sundog’s market cap has increased more than 250% to over $250 million, thanks to celebrity support and community involvement.

Sundog was the first meme coin to receive a 2 million TRX grant from the TRON team and conducted an airdrop of $2 million to 500,000 TRX holders, increasing its popularity.

Ty Dolla $ign joins a growing list of hip-hop artists who have purchased cryptocurrency. In 2020, rapper Logic invested $6 million in Bitcoin. Snoop Dogg, widely regarded as a crypto ambassador, has embraced Web3 through NFTs and blockchain-based fan experiences.

Nas, another rap legend, was an early investor in Coinbase and reportedly made more than $40 million when the exchange went public in 2021. He has also explored the tokenization of music rights, giving fans a stake in his songs through NFTs.

Soulja Boy is another outspoken supporter of Bitcoin, having released a song titled ‘Bitcoin’ in 2018, although his involvement in controversial NFT projects has come under scrutiny.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for clarity.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.